


I Need My Girl

by i_am_girlfriday



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-Series, Season/Series 01, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:21:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_girlfriday/pseuds/i_am_girlfriday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity isn't the mousy IT girl who puts her foot in her mouth anymore.  Now, she's Oliver's smartly dressed Executive Assistant, and when she puts her foot in her mouth, she’s wearing Christian Louboutins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Need My Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kyrieanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrieanne/gifts).



> Thank you to my speedy beta.
> 
> The title comes from The National song of the same name.
> 
> I hope my recipient enjoys this Yuletide treat! I had so much fun writing it. These ideas have been rolling around in my head for a while...what do we really know about Felicity Smoak?

Felicity is annoyed with Oliver, perhaps a little more than she has any right to be, when he hires her as his Executive Assistant at Queen Consolidated. It’s not exactly a demotion, and she feels bad for even thinking that it is one, because a week into her job makes her realize that being his assistant is way more complex and demanding than providing desktop support in the IT department.

***

Felicity had three semesters of college credit under her belt, a metric ton of student loans, and a laughable credit score when she applied to the job posting at Queen Consolidated. She had limited employment history beyond that short stint she did as a hostess at the Outback Steakhouse. Getting a full-time job with benefits at a Fortune 500 company, even if it was in the basement IT department, was a miracle.

Felicity did go to MIT, but the truth was she didn’t exactly graduate. She had the grades and test scores to get in, but she didn’t have the focus to stick with it. First, it had been family drama distracting her, then it was finances, which led to her taking on that hacking job that had ultimately gotten her kicked out of school. (The official ruling from campus Judicial Affairs was a two semester suspension.) Without school loans funding her apartment in Cambridge, it didn’t make sense to stick around. She packed up her stuff and didn’t look back.

Working for Queen Consolidated IT was pretty much the highlight of her life thus far. Felicity likes being a grown up with checking _and_ savings account, and a car she can make payments on monthly. She spent most of her income those first few years on paying down her loans. Sometimes she ate alone in the company cafeteria at lunch, and other days she window shopped at the high end department stores and boutiques nearby QC. Sometimes she treated herself to a lipstick, a pair of earrings, or a new skirt. She wanted to look nice, but it was mostly for herself, since the other people in her department thought business casual Fridays meant wearing dress socks with their sandals. Her IT office never got a ton of in-person traffic, she spent most of the time answering the phone and asking people if they’d tried turning their computer off and on again. She’d been dispatched to Walter Steele’s office a few times to help him personally, which is how he’d discovered her skills were being wasted doing desktop support. Felicity deeply appreciates that he saw something special in her, because that’s how she got involved with Oliver.

***

Felicity likes working with Oliver and Diggle. She likes feeling like part of a family, one that isn’t crumbling apart and dysfunctional like the one she grew up in and moved away from as soon as she could. She knows she’s integral to the team, no matter what her title is now, and the point seems asinine to argue in front of Diggle who is quite literally Oliver’s black chauffeur.

Felicity has no idea what it’s like to be wealthy like Oliver, but she gets a taste of it working for him. She’s a jet setter now; she has an expense account, and stays at luxury hotels with the plush robes and mints on her pillow. Now she orders lunches for her and Oliver from the best restaurants in Starling City, and if she manages to get out, she doesn’t just browse in the shops. Felicity has become a clotheshorse, her closet overflowing with designer suits for work, heels that match her handbags, and too many coats, sweaters, dresses, skirts, jeans, and scarves to count. 

People pass her in the lobby or stand in the elevator with her and they _take notice_. Felicity isn't the mousy IT girl who puts her foot in her mouth anymore. Now, she's Oliver's smartly dressed Executive Assistant, and when she puts her foot in her mouth, she’s wearing Christian Louboutins.

“It’s not just the clothes, Felicity.” Diggle tells her one night over dinner at Big Belly Burger.

Felicity slumps her shoulders and wipes at her lipstick, her napkin streaked with MAC’s Up the Amp. She’s not used to the attention or the flirting, or at least she’s not used to being on the receiving end of it.

“People are taking notice of you now because of the way you carry yourself.” He sits back in the booth and looks at her fondly.

“It’s the three hundred dollar haircut, Dig.” She toussels her blond locks that are perfectly straightened. “This is all a carefully crafted illusion.” She waves her hands down her body in a sexy mime.

“Is the extra attention making you truly uncomfortable? Because if so, I’m pretty sure you can alert HR and they’ll handle it for you.”

Felicity groans. “I know the difference between being noticed and sexual harassment.”

“Then what’s really bothering you?”

“I never asked to be Oliver’s girl Friday. I was fine living my life under the radar. But given the choice,” she admits begrudgingly, “I guess I’d rather have the reputation for being good at my job than have people gossip about me because they think I’m sleeping with Oliver.”

“The only person spreading that rumor is Isabel. And who care’s what she thinks, anyway. Enjoy your new found confidence, go out, live a little.” Diggle grabs his tray and hers and heads to the trash can. “See you on Monday?”

Felicity nods and waves goodbye. She pulls out her phone and scans through her texts--they’re all from Oliver and Diggle. She doesn’t have to look at her contacts to know that there’s not a single new number in there she truly wants to call. Despite all the attention she’s been getting, it hasn’t actually impacted her social life all that much. She still works twelve hour days and weekends when she’s needed. She can’t remember the last date she went on, unless you count her standing MMORPG dates, which she doesn’t.

Felicity heads home and opens a bottle of red wine. She thinks about her conversation with Diggle and tries to figure out what’s really bothering her. She looks at it from every angle, kind of like when she’s working on a program, going through the code line by line. It strikes her suddenly why she’s so uneasy at work these days. Felicity isn’t bothered by the attention her new look garners, and she doesn’t even care if people think she and Oliver are sleeping together--but it bothers her to her core that Oliver hasn’t once noticed her the way she wants him to, and it cuts her down to the marrow that he scoffed at Isabel’s suggestion that they could be anything but professional. 

She lets the wine anesthetize the sting a bit. Felicity may have a shed a few old insecurities, but she’s far from believing Oliver is secretly carrying a torch for her. After another glass of wine she finally works up the courage to take the next step. Felicity scrolls through her contacts until she finds the number for the cute guy in Accounting who chatted her up on Wednesday. 

She has her finger on the call button when Oliver’s text comes through.

_Felicity, I need you._

It’s the cruelest of timing, but Felicity answers him anyway.

_I’m on my way._


End file.
